Summary: In this gallery I show several photos taken with three high end smartphones in typical summer time situations. Even though the HTC One uses a unique ultrapixel approach, it still holds its own against Nokia 8.7 megapixel cameras.

HTC One: Seattle Waterfront

There is no better smartphone hardware than the HTC One and I have no intention of giving it up. However, given the fantastic Nokia camera technology, and my desire for a good test Windows Phone 8 device, I just picked up the Nokia Lumia 925 on T-Mobile. I went on a short photo walk to see if the camera could sway me to use the Lumia 925 more often than the One. I also included the Nokia Lumia 928 since the 925 has an extra lens and I wanted to check if that made a difference too.

This gallery of images is not a scientific test and I will leave that kind of detailed testing up to those sites who have the tools and resources to conduct those full tests. My intent and purpose was to just capture several photos that a typical consumer might take along the Seattle waterfront, near the Clink, and around my yard. Everything was left in auto with the two Lumia devices switched to macro mode for the close up shots.

Like many of you, I am not a fan of the ZDNet gallery design, but that's what I have to work with. If you want to see the original images then feel free to visit my Flickr set collection of the images.

Viewing and judging these photos is subjective as some people focus on clarity and detail, some on color replication, others on how much is captured, and more. If you zoom into the photos you will see that the ultra pixel method doesn't provide for much depth in the images. That said, for typical viewing online I found these images to show the HTC One shot the best in most cases (7/10 photos in my opinion), but the Lumia 925 could be chosen for many of those winning shots too. I did see that the Lumia 925 performed better than the 928 as well.

To get another person's opinion, I had my wife perform the comparison test and she too selected the HTC One as the best result for the majority of photos I posted.

I thought the Nokia Lumia 925 would be tops in nearly every photo with the six lenses and Nokia PureView technology, but HTC's One does very well and surprised me with its performance. I don't have to compromise on apps and services with the One while I still make tradeoffs with Windows Phone. It was good to see the HTC One camera stack up well and I will continue to use it as my primary device.

Which phone do you think performed the best, the HTC One, Lumia 925, or Lumia 928?

Nokia Lumia 925: Seattle Waterfront

Nokia Lumia 928: Seattle Waterfront

HTC One: Front facing camera on the Seattle Waterfront

Nokia Lumia 925: Front facing camera on the waterfront

Nokia Lumia 928: Front facing camera on the waterfront

HTC One: Seattle Waterfront panorama

Notice how well the HTC software stitched the images together.

Lumia 925: Seattle Waterfront panorama

I tried to stay steady, but the software didn't stitch the image together very well.

Lumia 928: Seattle Waterfront panorama

HTC One: Waterfall in park

Nokia Lumia 925: Waterfall in park

Nokia Lumia 928: Waterfall in park

HTC One: The Clink in HDR mode

HTC One: The Clink

Nokia Lumia 925: The Clink

Nokia Lumia 928: The Clink

HTC One: Sounders flag

Nokia Lumia 925: Sounders flag

Nokia Lumia 928: Sounders flag

HTC One: Seattle city view

Nokia Lumia 925: Seattle city view

Nokia Lumia 928: Seattle city view

HTC One: Flower view

Nokia Lumia 925: Flower view

Sorry, the flash was in auto mode and initiated on the 925.

Nokia Lumia 928: Flower view

Sorry, the flash was in auto mode and initiated on the 925.

HTC One: A bit closer flower shot

The HTC One doesn't do very well for close up shots and has no macro mode like we see on the Nokia Lumias.

Nokia Lumia 925: A bit closer flower shot

Nokia Lumia 928: A bit closer flower shot

HTC One: Blueberry plant in my yard

Nokia Lumia 925: Blueberry plant in my yard

Nokia Lumia 928: Blueberry plant in my yard

Nokia Lumia 928: Seattle city view

Matthew Miller started using a mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. He is a co-host with GigaOM's Kevin Tofel on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and an author of three Wiley Companion series books. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 200 d...
Full Bio

Disclosure

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadgeteer at all other times. He purchases his own devices and then sells them on eBay or Swappa to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as &#8220;long term loaner units&#8221 this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.